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Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

The 48 mines are also linked by the fact that most of their owners have been legally delaying action on the violations through appeals of the citations. The Mine Safety and Health Administration is faced with a backlog of approximately 16,000 appeals.

"Environmentalist Jeff Spoelstra says an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River that runs through toxin-laced land in southwestern Michigan was on its way to becoming safe again. ...Then, in January 2009, Lyondell Chemical Co. filed for bankruptcy protection. The Houston-based petrochemical giant argued in court that as it reorganized, it could avoid what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said were about $2.5 billion in cleanup costs...."

"With just five words quietly slipped into legislation, Illinois lawmakers are moving to include tire burning in the state's definition of renewable energy, a change that would benefit a south suburban incinerator with a long history of pollution problems."

"A federal judge has sided with a Midwestern energy company, agreeing to dismiss allegations of Clean Air Act violations at five Illinois coal-fired power plants and partially dismiss claims of violations at a sixth plant."

"Bipartisan legislation that promises the largest federal investment ever to clean up the Great Lakes -- $650 million annually for the next five years -- has been introduced in the Senate and in the House to applause from environmental groups."

"Proposals to block Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes have largely focused on the costs and inconvenience of closing off Chicago-area waterways into Lake Michigan. But now business and environmental groups are exploring a possible upside: a broadly based infrastructure investment that would benefit much of northern Illinois."